United Nations Development Group-World Bank Post-Crisis Operational Annex 1 Preamble Within the framework of the UN-WB statement on crisis and post crisis situations, the objective of this partnership note is to anchor a common operational platform for coordinated post-crisis responses between the World Bank and the member organizations of the United Nations Development Group 2 ( the UNDG ) by: 1. Establishing an agreed set of principles to guide and support collaboration between the UNDG and the WB in crisis and post crisis situations, 2. Defining the communication channels, assessment and planning processes to determine country-level collaboration, and to arrive at clear roles and responsibilities, particularly in overlapping thematic areas of intervention and coordination, that the UNDG and the WB commit to follow in crisis and post crisis situations. 3. Outlining actions to be taken to strengthen the interoperability of UNDG members and WB procedures, including legal and fiduciary arrangements. 1. Guiding Principles The UNDG and the World Bank agree that: i) The objective of their collaboration is to enhance country resilience to crises, by answering immediate needs and ensuring livelihoods of vulnerable populations, supporting sustainable peace-building and strengthening the capacity of national and local institutions for effective prevention, response and recovery leading to long term development. 1 It is understood that the scope of UNDG/WB partnership goes well beyond the areas explicitly identified in this note in particular with regard to individual UN agency/wb agreements and collaboration in both crisis and noncrisis settings and that this note aims to complement these other areas of collaboration. 2 The United Nations Development Group (UNDG) brings together the operational agencies working on development. The Group is chaired by the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on behalf of the Secretary General. The most recent information on the UNDG, including on its membership can be found on www.undg.org
ii) iii) A strengthened UNDG-WB collaboration is critical for increasing both the speed and the effectiveness of executing and implementing interventions to address priority crisis and post-crisis needs. Decisions on UNDG-WB collaboration and division of labor need to be informed by country context which involves different needs, capacity of national counterpart institutions, as well as a different constellation of international donors and partner institutions and driven by the objective of improved development outcomes in each given country. The UNDG and the WB have strongly complementary strengths, based on their respective mandates and capacities, to support national authorities and their populations in post conflict situations and natural disasters. In particular, the UNDG agencies, funds and programs provide an essential element of the UN s overall response to crisis and post crisis, when security, political, humanitarian and development efforts come together to ensure a coherent support to a country s peacebuilding needs. The World Bank is a major financier of post-crisis recovery, and has strong relationships and dialogue with developing country governments on poverty reduction strategies, planning and budgeting, including on disaster prevention and mitigation and postconflict recovery. As such, improved coordination between UNDG members and the WB can contribute significantly to an effective, efficient, nationally-led transition from relief to development 3 In recent years a very productive partnership between the UNDG and the WB has led to enhanced collaboration in crisis and post crisis situations. This has included: (i) development of a shared approach for post-conflict needs assessments and transitional results frameworks (PCNA/TRMs), and their coordination with peace-keeping and humanitarian planning processes; (ii) various Multi-Donor Trust Fund mechanisms (two-window and one-window) and other models for the transfer of funds from one institution to another; (iii) joint operations at the country-level; (iv) joint work to strengthen national aid coordination capacity, prepare donor conferences and support core donor groups; and (v) joint training and staff briefings. While the partnership has grown closer in recent years, both the UNDG and the WB see opportunities for strengthening their institutional cooperation by taking account of lessons learned at the country level, and building on recent developments such as the peacebuilding architecture, the PCNA, and the WB s new rapid response policy. These initiatives have taken place within a wider harmonization context and in partnership with other bilateral and multilateral international partners.. This note seeks to encourage joint work between the UNDG and the Bank, which will continue to follow a flexible approach in seizing new opportunities for collaboration beyond the scope of this note, in order to respond to evolving operational needs. 3 Such coordination between the UNDG and the WB is called upon by Members States, as indicated in Paragraph 73, 2007 Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review (TCPT), GA. [2]
2. Arrangements for strengthened collaboration in post-crisis settings 2.1 Communication protocol The UNDG and the Bank will strengthen mechanisms for ensuring consistent and effective institutional contacts in crises and emergencies, through the following protocol: Immediate contacts in the event of a crisis or post-crisis situation are made between the most senior World Bank and UN official at the country level (normally the Country Director or Country Manager for the World Bank and the UN Resident Coordinator [and SRSG, where applicable 4 ]) Simultaneously, institutional teams responsible for post-crisis assistance in New York, Geneva, and Washington will ensure that they are in contact. For the UNDG, the institutional focal point will be UNDOCO, as the facilitator of the UNDG/ECHA mechanism for decision-making; for the World Bank, it constitutes the Fragile and Conflict-Affected States Group for conflict-related crises and the Hazard Management Team for natural disasters. The WB and UNDG institutional teams will be responsible for ensuring that there is effective information sharing and coordination between headquarters and country offices, and among agencies, and for troubleshooting problems arising on UNDG/WB specific issues which cannot be resolved at country level. 2.2 Assessment, planning and determination of division of labor, drawing on best practices To reinforce our institutional commitment to the use of shared tools to better inform decision-making on the ground and support a more systematic application of good practices and relevant experiences between countries, the UNDG and the WB agree to: Use a common methodology for both post-conflict and post-disaster needs assessments and recovery planning (PCNA/PDNA). Expand the information available to country teams on lessons learned from other country experiences regarding coordination and division of labor in support of country-level efforts to determine clear roles and responsibilities. Ensure that coordination and arrangements related to roles and responsibilities are inclusive of national counterpart institutions, principal international partners, as well as civil society and the private sector. To strengthen effective collaboration and ensure that these issues are adequately addressed, the UNDG members and the WB agree to work together to encourage and support country teams facing specific crisis and post-crisis situations to make effective use of the existing tools and instruments, through, inter alia, information sharing and technical support. When agreed common methodologies and tools exist, UNDG and WB 4 See SG Note of Guidance on Integrated Missions [3]
will encourage country teams to make use of such methodologies and support country teams thereof. When no common methodologies or tools are in place, country teams shall foster coherence in the use of the respective tools and methodologies, at country level. The following common methodologies and instruments are currently in place: For assessments: Post Conflict Needs Assessment (PCNA); UNDG-WB Joint Programme on PCNAs; Post Natural Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA), For financing: the UN and the Bank have collaborated in independent evaluations of MDTF performance which provide recommendations and good practice examples on internal UN and WB reforms to enhance the performance of MDTFS, and the adaptation of MDTFs to country context and objectives For each of these issues/activities, the UNDG and the WB commit to sharing with country teams lessons learned from other countries and to support country-level exercises to determine roles and responsibilities based on those lessons learned, in areas where both UNDG and the WB can offer a contribution, In each of these areas, the goal should be to increase the effectiveness of the support provided, and to lower the transaction costs for the counterpart government, donors, regional and international partners. These areas include, but are not limited to: Policy development and technical assistance for national and sector-/based recovery plans Support to preparation of donor conferences and other coordination meetings Support to national capacity for planning and aid coordination, including tracking of aid flows Support to national capacity for monitoring and evaluation systems Sector programmes and projects, including planning, costing, implementation and delivery Financing, including budget support and pooled funding Capacity building, both at national and sub-national level, including implementation capacity analysis Data collection and information management and sharing, in support of national systems Coordination between political/security (peacekeeping operations where applicable) and humanitarian planning and the government s national recovery planning processes International coordination, for both national and sector-based recovery plans 2.3 Financing The UNDG and the WB recognize that efforts to strengthen collaboration around multidonor trusts funds, as well as to resolve current problems with the lack of interoperability between the respective legal and fiduciary frameworks, are critical to enhance [4]
opportunities for collaboration and support national authorities to manage international assistance for crisis and post crisis recovery. Both partners agree that, building on best practices and experiences, a more predictable procedure needs to be put in place to establish the appropriate funding facility. The ultimate decision on the appropriate funding facility is taken by the country government (or relevant national partners). Normally, such decision would take into account the preferences of potential donors, and would be made upon a joint recommendation of the UN system and the World Bank, with other multilateral institutions as appropriate to the context. This approach will reinforce cooperation among all parties and contribute to reduced transaction costs, improved efficiency and timeliness. To reflect the above, in making a determination on the appropriate configuration of the funding facility, the UNCT and the WB in country representatives should be guided by the following considerations: (i) The specific country situation, taking into account such factors as: the purpose of the MDTF; the capacity of the government and the likely realistic timing of transition to government executing arrangements; the comparative advantage of different agencies with regard to the objectives of the Fund including the activities to be covered, requisite speed of disbursement for quick impact delivery; degree of on budget or off budget requirements; and conditions for direct budget support. (ii) The analysis of the main options for the funding facility configurations under a single governance structure, which include: A two window model: where, taking into account the factors listed in point (i) above, the comparative advantages of the WB (on the one hand) and the UNDG (on the other) merit a division of administration responsibilities (including application of the implementer s rules and procedures to the activities it administers) A single window model: where, taking into account the factors listed in point (i) above, the activities predominantly fall within the comparative advantage of either the WB (on the one hand) or the UNDG (on the other) and thus a single fund administrator is merited. Under this arrangement, each organization that is a signatory to the Fiduciary Principles Accord would, when receiving a distribution from the fund, expend that money in accordance with its own regulations, rules and procedures and in accordance with its own oversight and fiduciary framework. Sequential funds similar to the two window model, but where activities are distinguished by timescale and will be carried out sequentially with minimal overlap in time In situations where stakeholders in the field hold differing views, country representatives of the UN system and the World Bank should consult their respective designated representatives at HQ. [5]
3. Culture of collaboration In order to strengthen the culture of collaboration and promote cross-fertilization between the two institutions, the UNDG and the WB will: Invite staff from each organization to participate in relevant training programmes, and where appropriate and possible, develop joint training or staff briefing programmes in order to develop greater staff understanding of shared approaches, and staff awareness of instruments and approaches related to each organization s differing areas of mandate and competence as well as substantive areas of common intervention Conduct joint lessons learned exercises on successful examples of collaboration in the field. Such exercises will feed into the aforementioned common framework and into future joint training programs. As with the other commitments in this partnership note, the UNDG and the WB will seek the participation of other institutions involved in post-crisis assistance in these programmes. The UNDG and WB agree to review the partnership periodically both globally as well as in the context of specific country experiences in order to adjust institutional arrangements, document good practices, identify opportunities and constraints, and assure continual attention to the impact of our collaboration on the effectiveness of the post-crisis response. Signed October 24, 2008 Kemal Derviş Chair United Nations Development Group Ngozi N. Okonjo-Iweala Managing Director The World Bank [6]